


THE FORCE BETWEEN US

by zheshiwxm



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Movie: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Reylo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:22:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21860875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zheshiwxm/pseuds/zheshiwxm
Summary: One year after the war at planet Exogol, Rey found herself still dwelling in the agony of losing Ben. She still hears his voice, still dreams about him. Through the process of finding ways out from her very much grief. Rey begins to sense Ben's existence again.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	1. IS IT A DREAM

"Ben..."

Rey kisses him and says his name with tears of joy running down her cheeks. _We won... It all ends here, Ben._ He smiles back to her, a warm smile she has secretly hoped to see for a long time, and then he disappears. All gone. Ben Solo is gone.

.

.

It has been a year since the day marked as The Resistance’s victory. The day everyone came back to the base with smiles and tears, some cried because of the winning, some cried because, along the way to winning the war, they had lost someone they loved. War is like that. You trade lives with lives. Things pass away so quickly in a speed of light. Too brief, too chaotic, you can’t comprehend anything. – Rey came back that day and remembered hugging BB8 before two of her best friends with all the feeling mixed together like a soup roughly made, a soup that would never be well seasoned. She cried and cried and cried… and it was not because of the victory at all. Inside her filled with a tremendous grief. Han Solo had gone long before she could remember the pain of loss. General Leia left them while she was not there. She felt the sadness of losing her too, but it was not weighing too hard on her chest like Ben’s death.

_I can finally pull you back to the light. Why would you have to go?_

Rey never sleeps soundly. Ben’s voice echoes in her dream calling her name repeatedly. She tries to respond him but it seems like her voice could never reach there. Every night he keeps calling her name – his voice dressed with a deep longing – again and again and again until she wakes up. It has been like this since she came back from the war with the Sith and after that incident Rey will just sit there in her bed, awaken – thinking of his voice, his smile, his lips, and his last embrace he gave her that day. Rey yearns for him. So much she could hardly resist. _I miss you, Ben._

“Master Luke Skywalker, if you’re still with me, please guide me the way. I can’t live like this forever,” finding no way out of this agony, Rey closes her eyes and tries to communicate with all the Jedis like she did back at the planet Exogol. “How can I calm all these pain inside me? I need to stop thinking about your nephew already. This guilt, this loneliness, I need it to stop to have a life.”

There isn’t even a hiss from another side. The Jedis, especially her Master, have not communicated with her again since that day. Is it because she buried the lightsabers that makes her lose touch with her masters? No. Rey doesn’t believe that. The Force is with her. The Jedis must be with her too. She has been always so stubborn and she will never give up until she has a response from them.

“Master, please! Answer me! You old man!” A mug setting on her bedside table starts to tremble. She uses so much of the force in her mind it starts to affect her surroundings.

_Answer me!_

_Answer me!_

She extends the power of the Force. Her eyebrows almost ties to each other completely. _Answer me!_ She uses the Force to search through the whole galaxy. _Answer. Please._

 _“Rey?”_ Rey gasps. Her entire body shivering and soaked with sweat. She closely pays attention to the voice that seems to be sent from far, far away. So far. So familiar.

_“Rey, can you hear me?”_

This time she shudders and suddenly opens her eyes. Rey pants like she has just run away from the First Order army in full speed. She finally gets an answer but has to pull back for some reasons.

Partly shocked, partly puzzled.

Why? Because that voice isn’t Luke’s. It’s Ben’s. It's Ben Solo’s voice.


	2. THE BOUND

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is a typical day for Rey where she begins her class with all the apprentices as a Jedi Master. Ben's voice is still dimly heard at the back of her mind while Rey tries to find out the source of the voice.

The sun comes up and the birds outside the house start to sing along with all the rhythm of life echoing the coming of a new day. Rey drifted off for half an hour after she heard the voice. And maybe this time she was too exhausted for a dream. For the first time in a year, she could get a good sleep and could wake up feeling so fresh like a droid that get its storage cache cleared.

Maybe this time he is truly gone. Or maybe it’s her who can finally let him go. _Good. Now it ends._ Rey thinks while dragging herself towards the bathroom, reaching the sink. She needs to wash herself before going out there teaching the children to use the Force. The reflection in the mirror flashes a hint of disappointment in her eyes. Of course, not dreaming about Ben again is good for her in a long run but to admit that she would never hear him again… It’s like watching him disappear for a second time and that sparks a pain in her.

“No way in this life I will forget you, Ben. You will live here with me forever.” Rey places her hand on her chest at the position of her heart. Thinking about the last kiss both of them had. She means to remember everything about him; that he was the real hero of this war, that he was the real Skywalker, -- the last true one. She turns on the tap and washes her face… carries on her routine like same old mornings.

_“Good. Because I will not let that happen.”_ The voice prompts up in the middle of a long silence. Rey frowns, she turns around to find its source only to see nothing but herself standing half-naked in her private bathroom.

The glass on a stool is pushed by an invisible force before it falls down to the floor. Shattered. All the pieces of the broken glass vibrate. Rey knows this is because one of the naughty boys out there trying to call her to the training field.

_“Did you sleep well? I tried so hard not to wake you up again.”_ The voice continues.

“Who the hell was that?!” Rey bangs on the bathroom wall. Next door is general Finn’s bedroom. It can be no one but him. “It’s not funny, Finn.” There is no answer from Finn at all. Rey actually knows Finn isn’t there. He wakes up quite early these days.

_“Don’t be alarmed.”_ The voice says softly. _“It’s me. Ben.”_

Rey almost collapses. Can’t believe of what she hears. How can he talk to her when she is awake? Is she hallucinating? Or this is the side-effect from last night? Ben wasn’t even a Jedi as he didn’t train much with Luke before he left. How could his spirit reside and merge with the Force in the galaxy? She was trying to reach Luke, not him.

_Besides, I didn’t even see you the day I saw Luke and Leia._

“Whoever you are, just get lost! This isn’t funny at all!” Rey blusters before walking out from the bathroom. The women get dressed by her rusty, a little worn out, brownish suit she regularly wears and storms out from her residence. Slams the door shut.

The Rey we all know shows her strong trait again when walks out to let her figure touched by the morning light. Though quite disturbed, her stare still appears calm and focused. “If you can’t admire what he did, at least be respectful. Ben was General Leia and Han’s only son. And he saved my life.” The woman says that under her breath… walking out to the field where all of her apprentices are meditating.

“Whoever uses the force to trick me this ridiculous scam, brace yourself.”

==========

Rey was wandering around in the desert after the day she buried lightsabers. At that time, she didn’t know what to do at all. By attending the war, her memory of how she had lived her life in Jakku almost all faded. At that moment she needed no training and didn’t have to prepare herself for a fight anymore. Rey was just beginning to pursue her old profession – a ragpicker – by the time Finn and Poe reached her and begged her back to the base to train the new generation of Jedi.

The Force is universal. It is everywhere and with everyone – not only with the Skywalkers or the – (Ahem, Rey isn’t comfortable much to mention this) – Palpatines like her. Anyone in this galaxy can use the Force. By this principle, general Finn and general Poe, the current leaders of the galaxy defense forces (former Resistance army), want to train as much Jedis as they can to assure the Light will be overpopulate the Dark, in case its seeds still exist somewhere in this galaxy.

They hope that if they can gain many righteous Jedis as in the part, they will be able to restore the Jedi High Council. Of course, Rey doesn’t totally agree with the idea. She doesn’t care about the politics since, in her opinion, politics is the thing that mostly causes troubles. The reason she is at the base teaching is because she thinks Luke and Leia would have wanted her to do so.

Here at the base, the story of Anakin Skywalker the Darth Vader and Ben Solo the Kylo Ren isn’t a secret. The master who teaches history recounts their paths in the Dark Side to all the apprentices just to make sure they will never follow such footsteps. Ben’s reputation isn’t much good in the camp. Most of the time his name is brought up with the tone of contempt and disrespect. Rey’s heart always hurts when she hears the kids talk about how he screwed up. For her, everything is opposite. No one knows how difficult Ben’s conflict was. No one can ever share a bound with him like she can. No one knows him like she does. But everything about him she can perceive has now been emblazoned deep in her very existence – too deep, too delicate, too complicated to ever explain it to anyone.

“Who did that!”

As soon as her feet touch the training ground, Rey bellows to all the boys and girls who are floating one meter above the ground – practicing Force control. They startle and look at one another in panic. “I ask you, who did that?!”

“It’s Dean!” A chubby boy points his finger to a tall, well-built teen with his dark skin. He floats a bit higher than anyone in the crew but falls down suddenly when hears his name mentioned.

“What! Betray me like this?!” He frowns at the boy. “I apologize, Master. We all noticed you’re quite late today so they urged me to send you a signal!”

“Did the signal necessarily need to be that voice?!” She gaits towards him, locks her eyes at his face. This one is considered a cream of her class. He is precise, strong, and somehow his Force receptor works in an excellent way. That’s why his friends usually rely on him when it comes to the things with the Force.

“What voice? Master? You don’t have to be this mad! I said I’m sorry.”

“What voice?! – Ben Solo’s voice! Do you think it’s funny to be such disrespectful to the fallen?!”

The boy stunts a little before he can get it together and say, “Master Rey, no one here is skilled enough to ever penetrate your mind. Besides, we have NEVER heard Kylo Ren’s voice before, how could we make it up to tease you? – What I did is just pushing your glass off the sink!”

“But…” Rey pauses for a while then decides to rest the matter aside. Maybe her anxiety symptom gets a bit more severe that she now has an illusion. She shouldn’t have done this to all of them. Rey shakes the thing off her head, “Forget it, I must have misunderstood something for his voice. Okay, now everyone gets up! We are going to get a bit more physical today.”

Everyone lowers themselves down until their feet touch the ground. Some shake their head like they have been through hours of textbook revision. Some sigh and smile – these are the ones who love physical training more than sitting around asking the Force to be with them.

“And you, Dean, do not call the man Kylo Ren again. His name is Ben Solo.”

“Yes, Master.” The boy nods, can’t hold himself from shooting her a strange look.

_“Don’t be so hard on them, Rey. Otherwise you would become another Luke Skywalker.”_ The voice brushes across her ears, so soft and light like a wind blow. Rey can sense a chuckle at the end of the sentence. The woman ignores it. She can go crazy all she wants when she is alone, but not here, not in front of all these young future Jedis.

“Shut up, Ben.” She whispers back though knowing that he is illusionary.


	3. REAPPEAR

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey finally figures out the mysterious voice that has been around for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apology for those who like this story as I haven't updated for a while.  
> I'll try to write more if possible.
> 
> Thanks for the comments! :)

Rey shuts the bedroom door as quite as possible when she finished all the works and routines she has to do in the camp. Now it’s finally her alone time. Now she can finally investigate what’s really happening inside her head.

“Ben! Are you really here or it is just me hallucinating?” Rey tries to whisper but turns out her voice appears louder than expected. “How can this be possible? Why I’ve heard your voice all day? Are you real?”

She waits for the response but everything after her rambling falls silence.

Rey waits a little bit more and tries to concentrate.

No. Nothing.

The woman lets out a sigh and starts to unclothe herself. Today’s class was quite tough. All the young were all exhausted and fell to the ground as soon as she said the world ‘class dismissed’. She’d urged them to run, and fight with multiple training tools for their own goods. To understand the nature of the galaxy that you can finally feel the force is one thing. But to be a Jedi, that isn’t enough. You really need a combat skill and a good physical strength. Her mind wanders back to Ben Solo again. The memory of fighting with him on the Death Star reappears. The way he walked towards her, the way he lifted that red lightsaber, and the way he looked at her while she was force healing him. The last day of Kylo Ren. She could almost have had him back… Only if he had survived the Exogol…

“I’m so sorry, Leia. It should have been him who is here now, not me. He shouldn’t have saved me the way he did.” Rey says that under her breathe.

 _“If only you could just once stop blaming yourself…”_ The mysterious voice surges up the silence, stops Rey from everything she’s doing. _“That would be good.”_

“Ben?! Is that really you?!” Rey looks around herself like she hopes she could see his actual fresh-and-blood existence. But she sees nothing. It’s only herself in the room.

_“Yes. It’s me. I’ve already told you earlier this morning.”_

“But how? I saw you disappeared with my own eyes! And I didn’t even see you the day I saw Luke and Leia!” Rey starts to put some of her clothes back on, being aware that maybe he could see her almost naked body.

 _“I don’t understand it too.”_ The voice answers back. _“I thought I would die and would never be able to come back in any form as well. I didn’t finish the training. I turned to the Dark Side. I wasn’t even a Jedi –”_

“You were! And still are! This is the proof! You are now the one with the force. You can force ghost me like Luke once did!” Rey protests his claim.

 _“Does that mean I died?”_ The voice sounds a bit sad. _“Does that mean you and I aren’t in the same place now? That we will never actually meet again?”_

Rey’s mouth suddenly tastes bitter. “If things are as the same as it happened to Luke and Leia, then I guess you already died from the body you used to possess.”

 _“It’s just sad that I can’t kiss you like at the Exogol again.”_ The sad voice painted with a playful tone. Rey hasn’t heard Ben speaks this way before.

“Yeah, just shut up.” She laughs. “But how can I know this is you? I mean, not something I make up by myself.”

 _“No, no. I’m real. Maybe I can try to prove it. I don’t know if I can. But I will try.”_ He says it very fast. Like he doesn’t want her to stay in doubt just one more second that he isn’t real.

After that things become silent again, a lightbulb in the room starts to blink. Rey stares hard at it. Shortly afterwards a transparent Ben Solo appears in her room. He looks confused at first, as if this is the first time he has ever appeared in a solid shape. Rey’s heart pounds like a drum – It’s him! It’s really him!

 _“This is quite hard. I think I need to practice more. And it’s draining too. I don’t think I can stay visible like this for long. Very consuming.”_ His body starts to blink like a low battery electronic device and disappears. _“Sorry, Rey. This is the first time. Don’t be alarmed.”_

No, she isn’t alarmed.

She is shocked.

Shocked by the fact that this isn’t a dream.

Ben Solo is back to her. He is here, though as a force ghost, but here... visibly.


End file.
